My family coat of arms is fancier than your coat of arms!
Dragonwyck (1946) is a dated but tense horror drama exploring the general societal view of agnosticism in 1844. Young Miranda Wells, raised by her strictly observant parents in Connecticut, receives an opportunity to visit her distant cousin, Nicholas Van Ryn, in Hudson, NY. There she discovers he reigns over his plantation almost like a king as patroon.
But Van Ryn faces opposition, not only from the tenant farmers who seek the right of not working for him, but from local Dr. Turner. Turner and Van Ryn have a history of mutual antagonism, but when Van Ryn’s wife, Johanna, takes a turn for the worse, Van Ryn calls upon Dr. Turner for help.
It doesn’t go well, and Johanna, a virtual exile in her own home, passes away. Soon, Van Ryn and Miranda are courting, and we discover what an agnostic in this age may yearn for, if not God: an heir. This is not an unfamiliar goal for the men of this age, but Van Ryn, unrestrained by God, societal expectations, or anything else, makes it part of the narcissism that characterizes his life, and failures at this ultimate goal loom large.
Soon, we’re part of the spiral of madness in which God has a plan for all of us fails to act as a release valve for Van Ryn. Miranda, being but a female, aggravated my Arts Editor as well as myself with her learned helplessness, although women in that era in America were not expected to assert their opinions. It’s a bit of a blotch on the emotional character of the story.
But, overall, it’s not a bad story at all. Well-acted, excellent cinematography and sets, the agnosticism as a path into self-destructive narcissism is an interesting byway on an otherwise painfully righteous path often ascribed to the era.
This is an atypical horror story that we found fascinating. And if that doesn’t lure you into watching, at least you Vinnie Price completists should see this, as Price has the lead role.
